


Domestic

by KittooningMalijah



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Canon Divergence, F/M, Post-Impossible Planet/Satan Pit AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-08-20
Updated: 2014-08-19
Packaged: 2018-02-13 19:37:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2162607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KittooningMalijah/pseuds/KittooningMalijah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>No TARDIS means no way home, and no way home means they're trapped on the slow path - which happens to include a flat, a job, and the Doctor trying to deal with Rose Tyler's new boyfriend.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Domestic

**Author's Note:**

> As of this chapter, no archive warnings apply, but the rating is subject to change because of plot.

There were sixteen forks, sixteen spoons, and eight knives in the set, and they were arranged neatly in the drawer, freshly sorted into the five wooden compartments. Sixteen plates and sixteen bowls were in one of the overhead cabinets, and another was filled with exactly six glasses, and the pots and pans had been stored in the drawer under the stove. None of these things had been used, and the two hours out of their boxes had been spent in the dishwasher to that they were safe to eat off of, out of, and with, but there was no way they were ever all going to be dirty at the same time again. Two people couldn't possibly go through them so quickly.

A door down the flat's short hallway opened and closed, and footsteps accompanied the figure into the recently stocked kitchen. It took mere minutes for her to remove the needed forks and spoons and the small pot, and then a sigh filled the otherwise silent air when she opened the mostly empty pantry. Their shopping opportunities had been limited, of course, but certainly they hadn't forgotten the one thing she intended to make for dinner on the only night she'd really have the time. There was quiet clinking and the sound of the drawers' rollers while they opened and closed again, near silent footsteps carrying the woman from the kitchen back down the short hallway so that she could search out her residential companion.

Or, rather, she was his.

"Doctor!"

Rose Tyler's voice carried through the wall into one of the two bedrooms in the flat, and she waited only a short moment before the door opened to reveal none other than the last of the Time Lords himself, hair sticking out at odd angles from his hands moving through it and glasses slipping down his nose just like they always did when he wasn't paying proper attention to anything but whatever his current project was - in this case, lesson plans. When he saw his blonde companion's crossed arms and irritated scowl, he quickly attempted to duck back into his room. "Do we have to discuss something right now? I'm working, and I have to have this done by tomorrow morning."

In the two months they'd spent trapped on earth after the events of Krop Tor, they'd spent all but the last three days on a base, searching for a flat to share and jobs until, even with the psychic paper, the best the Doctor could scavenge up was a teaching position at the local university. Rose, meanwhile, had found a job at the small shop just down the road, with hours that allowed her to take two classes to better her chances of getting a better job later. If they really were trapped, she wasn't going to work retail forever.

"You didn't go shopping at all, did you?" Although she'd meant it to be a question, it came out as an almost bored, unimpressed statement, and all she got in answer was a feigned look of innocent confusion. "I left you a very simple list of things to do while I was out, and all you did was sit in that room of yours working on that bloody lesson plan."

He had to hurry to come up with an excuse, even if it wasn't a very good one. "You were out, why didn't you pick things up?" As soon as the words left him, the Doctor knew they were exactly the wrong thing to say, and he was almost afraid to be hit with one of the Tyler-family slaps until Rose simply groaned and turned to walk down to her own room, shaking her head and muttered under her breath something that he didn't quite catch. Before she could turn around, he retreated back into his room to finish his work while she was cooling down.

* * *

After a night of take away Chinese food and nervous tossing and turning, all she wanted was for her alarm to shut off and let her fall back to sleep. Since she'd started traveling with the Doctor, Rose had been able to sleep in as much as she wanted or needed to because, after all, they'd been in a time machine. But with the TARDIS gone, she was back to relying on loud, annoying alarms. Which had somehow gotten switched off, as the high-pitched beeping had gone silent while she was still curled up in warm blankets. The short hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, and she forced herself to roll over to see exactly who was watching her.

When she opened her eyes upon reaching the edge of the bed, Rose gasped with surprise at the sight of a pair of very familiar brown eyes behind the lenses of the glasses she was absolutely certain he didn't actually need only inches away. The quick movements executed to pull back and sit up left her head spinning, her semiconscious mind hurrying to put together everything that had happened in the first few seconds she was awake. " _Doctor_!"

"You have to get up, Rose, or we'll be late - you can't be late for you first class, and I can't be late for mine. And I peeked at my list; I know we're going to the same one."

The near excitement in his voice was impossible to ignore, and this moment wasn't the first time since they'd moved into their flat that Rose thought the move would be a good thing. The change of scenery made it seem more like one of their usual adventures than settling down, and for her Time Lord best friend, that was the best way to cope with being stuck - just so long as she didn't have to move all of their things every other week. If they could keep the major changes to once a year, or even just once every few months, they could manage just fine.

"-And then I'll actually do that shopping you wanted me to do yesterday, and I really am sorry about that - you know me, always getting distracted by something or another - and I will most definitely get those groceries and maybe I'll get you a jacket, too, because it really does get very cold here in winter. Although, I suppose that's still a few months off, isn't it? But you certainly could use a better mobile than the one you had at the base, and I could use a mobile, too, and we did agree on sharing a computer but we can't use it at the same time then, can we? And you'll have essays to write and I'll have lessons to plan and- oh. You're ready."

While he'd been babbling, she'd been able to drag herself out of bed and get dressed, using the door of the closet to block any accidental glances in her direction. Tying her hair up, Rose walked out into the hallway and glanced back over her shoulder just in time to catch sight of her alien flatmate hurrying to follow her. "Aren't you coming? I thought you didn't want to be late on our first day?"


End file.
